Benefits set to be cut

UNIVERSAL Credit payments will begin to be cut from September, Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey has confirmed.

It means up to 150,000 people across Lancashire will face a fall in income.

The Government increased Universal

Credit by £20-a-week in April 2020, but said it was a temporary measure to help people through the coronavirus pandemic.

The Work and Pensions Secretary has told MPs that the Government does not have its “head in the sand” as she confirmed the UC uplift will be removed in the autumn.

She said the temporary uplift, introduced to help protect people during the coronavirus pandemic, would start to be “phased out” from late September.

Ms Coffey confirmed the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will be contacting claimants so they are aware that their payments will change and they will be directed to support for things like budgeting.

The Government has made a u-turn over the payment once. The £20-a-week was initially due to end in March this year, but it was extended after both Labour and Conservative MPs called for it to continue.

And the Government is still under pressure from some Tories to make the uplift permanent. Just days ago, six former Conservative work and pension secretaries warned that failing to do so would “damage living standards, health and opportunities” .

But this time, it seems ministers are determined to go ahead with returning Universal Credit to its previous level.

Ms Coffey said a collective decision was made to “shift the focus strongly into getting people into work” as the economy opens up.

This will be helped when the country moves to Step 4 of the coronavirus road map, due on July 19, and more opportunities are created, she told the Work and Pensions Committee.

Official figures show there were 151,582 Universal Credit claimants in Lancashire in March 2021.